October 21, 2021

A heart attack is no fun.  I discovered this the hard way a few days ago.  As a consequence I found myself on the frontlines of the Third World War ­– the global war against the Chinese created, and deliberately disseminated, COVID virus.  Having spent time on the front lines, I am now writing as a war correspondent.

For several days I lived with the battle-hardened infantry of this war.  People who were exposed to as much lethal danger as most soldiers in the thick of combat.  I mean, of course, the nurses and their doctors. 

Such an experience can be rewarding, for I learned many things about this war:  what it is like to be in constant danger while being overstressed and physically exhausted; what it means to see people that you have come to love suffer and die; what it means to know that the powers-that-be are incompetent and doing harm and you can do nothing to stop the idiocy.

The first thing to report is this war is serious.  It is no joke. People die in astonishing numbers.  Those that don’t die suffer terribly.  Even the most upscale hospital, like mine, has been overwhelmed with the suffering — stretched far beyond its capacity.  Much ingenuity was needed during the peaks of the pandemic to find safe ways of compassionately taking care of the COVID sick.  Fortunately, during my time on the war front the peak waves had passed and the soldiers have been given the opportunity to recuperate.

In our culture soldiers hate death.  They see too much of it.  Even the most hardened has compassion for the wounded and the dying — even his dying enemies.  And this compassion is especially felt if the fallen is a companion. 

Nurses and doctors are particularly torn up by too much COVID death and suffering because their patients are their companions and often become dear friends.  A patient has a very intimate relationship with a nurse and affection between them can form instantly. 

Doctors have these bonds, as well.  Recently, one doctor that I know was devastated because he had just attended the COVID death of an old friend he could not save.